Can't assign LCR track to 5.1 bus
 

Mono tracks are routed 5.1 buses - check.
Stereo tracks are routed to 5.1 buses - check.
If I create a LCR track and try to route it to any of the same 5.1 buses, in the track output drop-down there are no available buses.

I'm obviously missing something important, but what?

Re: Can't assign LCR track to 5.1 bus
 

You need to create sub-pathes for LCR in the IO setup for the 5.1 bus you're trying to route to. Having said that, it's not possible to pan LCR to 5.1 in PT. You can only hard route LCR to an LCR sub-path of a 5.1 bus.

You need Spanner for universal panning in PT.

Frank.

Re: Can't assign LCR track to 5.1 bus
 

So you can't do with LCR tracks what you can do with stereo tracks? Right?

Re: Can't assign LCR track to 5.1 bus
 

Not without Spanner. Or you split your LCR into a 1mono+2 stereo tracks and then pan those individually.

But if you don't need the panning you can definitely route an LCR track to an 5.1 bus, if that was your question.

frank.

Re: Can't assign LCR track to 5.1 bus
 

If you need more flexibility you can get Spanner.

http://www.thecargocult.nz/spanner.shtml

I don't work for them, by they way. The only drawback with it is that your sends must match your output, so if you use Spanner to turn a stereo into a 5.1 then your send has to be either 5.1 or mono. Without spanner a stereo track can have a 5.1 output and a stereo send. Also you have to get used to your pan info being plug in automation, not pan automation. Changes your workflow, but add many up-mix and down mix options. Plus has cool iPad app.

Re: Can't assign LCR track to 5.1 bus
 

[QUOTE=Frank Kruse;2230490]But if you don't need the panning you can definitely route an LCR track to an 5.1 bus, if that was your question./QUOTE]
That was what I was trying to do.
As far as I can tell, you can route a stereo track to a 5.1 bus without a stereo sub path. But to route a LCR track to a 5.1 bus you need a LCR sub path.
Is that right? (It seems a little counter intuitive to say the least.)

Re: Can't assign LCR track to 5.1 bus
 

[QUOTE=idris;2230503]Almost. You always need subpaths but with mono to 5.0 or stereo to 5.1 you are panning to 5.0 so it's built in.

If you want to hard-route stereo to L/R of a 5.1 without any panning you still need sub-paths.

This is because PT only knows mono to whatever-panners. So on a mono track it gives you a mono to whatever panner. And on a stereo track it gives you a 'mono-panner per leg to whatever'-panner so essentially a dual-mono panner on a stereo track.

For an LCR or any other multi-channel panner that would mean 3 or 4 or 5 panners per leg per track which would look and work completely silly with the panner concept that PT follows.

So I guess they decided to stop at stereo.

This is where Spanner comes into play. It gives you all panners for all 3,4,5,6 or 7 legs of a track in one interface. And you don't have to think about those crazy 7 (I think) parameters that PT needs to define a position.

Re: Can't assign LCR track to 5.1 bus
 

Thanks Frank. Makes sense ... once you've stopped trying to figure out what you need to enable.

Re: Can't assign LCR track to 5.1 bus
 

What is the source material that is in lcr that you want to pan in 5.1?

Re: Can't assign LCR track to 5.1 bus
 

For perspective:
The surround mixer built into PT is something like 15 years old now, so you have to consider the context. Nobody mixed films in PT back then and almost every sound recording ever made was mono or stereo.

So yeah, they could have had a little more foresight and definitely missed an opportunity, but for the time it was OK.